Although I didn’t have very good success bass fishing on Banks Lake when my daughter was visiting, I planned another day of fishing there. My fishing buddies Tom Verschuren and Rollie Schmitten were with me on this trip, and we launched at the Steamboat State Park boat ramp. This is a good alternative to Northrup, now that the fish cleaning station is functioning. Tom and I have had many good days of bass fishing on Banks, and Rollie and I had a blast last year at about this time. We caught lots of smallmouth on plastics and even on top water lures. I pulled the Mark’s Marine Thunder Jet into the boulder field above Rosebush and deployed the Minn Kota. I know smallmouth like to hide out among these boulders to ambush bait fish. We tried top water lures first. These won’t snag in the rocks, but the only bites we go were on plastics. We then ran pretty much straight across the lake to the far shore. This has always been productive —except last Thursday. We tried Tiny Brush Hogs, Lizards, jerk baits and top water lures and got small bass but nothing like what I am used to.